Cleaning cloth holding structure for mopping apparatus

ABSTRACT

A cleaning cloth holding structure for a mopping apparatus includes a socket and a fastening member. The socket has a lower surface to hold a cleaning cloth and an upper surface to anchor the cleaning cloth. The fastening member has an assembling portion coupled with the upper surface of the socket. The upper surface has a first anchor portion. The fastening member has a corresponding second anchor portion to clamp the cleaning cloth with the first anchor portion to form anchor relationship. Thus the cleaning cloth can be securely held on the socket without loosening off during cleaning to improve usability.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to a cleaning cloth holding structure for a mopping apparatus and particularly to a holding structure to securely hold a cleaning cloth on a mopping apparatus to facilitate cleaning.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

House cleaning is an important issue many people pay more and more attention to. In general, mop is the most widely used cleaning tool to clean a floor. The mop was developed and introduced long time ago and has gone through numerous improvements and is formed in myriad of types now. The most popular mop at present has a mophead planted with water-absorbing material such as cotton and a handle for user gripping. The mophead planted with water-absorbing material is dipped into water, then the water is dispelled from the cloth by wrenching to allow the mop to be used. However, the mop becomes very heavy after absorbing water, and dispelling the water by wrenching is difficult, such that a lot of water is still remained in the water-absorbing material to make mopped floor wet and slippery, and it could increase the hazard of falling down of people. In addition, such a mop is difficult to cleanse and tends to be contaminated by dirt and microbes.

In recent years, a flat mop becomes increasingly popular on the market. It has a replaceable cleaning cloth attached thereon. For instance, R.O.C. patent No. M375483 discloses a multi-function universal mop which mainly includes a mophead containing a first surface and a second surface on the first surface, and an anchor slot close to each of four corners of the second surface. The first surface can be wrapped by various types of cleaning cloth, and the edge of the cleaning cloth is folded inversely to the second surface and is wedged in the anchor slot to be positioned to do cleaning. After cleaning task has been finished, if the cleaning cloth is too dirty, it can be replaced with a clean one.

In addition to the manual cleaning tool as previously discussed, advance of technology also makes automatic cleaning apparatus available now. For instance, R.O.C. patent No. I220383 discloses an automatic floor cleaning apparatus which mainly includes a body, a coupling dock fastened to the bottom of the body and a wiping member mounted onto the coupling dock. The coupling dock is a rectangular dock with the wiping member flatly attached to the bottom side thereof. The wiping member has four corners, each corner is bent upwards and squeezed into a slit formed at each of the four corners of the dock to be held. Hence the wiping member is coupled to the coupling dock in a removable manner for replacement whenever needed.

The conventional cleaning tools, whether manual or automatic, cleaning is performed through a cleaning cloth with the edge thereof squeezed into the slot at the bottom of the mop. While they are relative simple in assembly, the dirty cleaning cloth can be removed and replaced quickly. However, they hold the cleaning cloth by merely squeezing the edge thereof into the slot. The holding force is not strong enough. During cleaning process, the cleaning cloth forms a frictional contact with the floor and is easily loosened from the slot by dragging. Thus it is troublesome and creates a lot of annoyances when in use.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The primary object of the present invention is to solve the aforesaid disadvantages and increase the holding force for the cleaning cloth to securely mount the cleaning cloth onto a mopping apparatus.

To achieve the foregoing object, the present invention provides a cleaning cloth holding structure for a mopping apparatus that includes a socket and a fastening member located on the socket. The socket has a lower surface to hold a cleaning cloth and an upper surface to anchor the cleaning cloth. The upper surface has a first anchor portion. The fastening member has an assembling portion coupled on the upper surface of the socket and a second anchor portion extended from the assembling portion. The first anchor portion and second anchor portion can clamp the cleaning cloth to form an anchor relationship to securely hold the cleaning cloth on the socket.

In an embodiment of the invention, the first anchor portion and second anchor portion are respectively an aperture and a strut mating and engageable with each other. The cleaning cloth is squeezed into the aperture together with the strut to be held without loosening off when in use.

The foregoing, as well as additional objects, features and advantages of the invention will be more readily apparent from the following detailed description, which proceeds with reference to the accompanying drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of the invention.

FIG. 2 is an exploded view of the invention.

FIG. 3 is another exploded view of the invention.

FIGS. 4A and 4B are schematic views of an embodiment of the invention in use conditions.

FIG. 5 is a perspective view of another embodiment of the invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

Please refer to FIGS. 1 and 2, the present invention aims to provide a cleaning cloth holding structure for a mopping apparatus. The drawings show an embodiment of an automatic mopping apparatus to clean a floor automatically without manual operation. The mopping apparatus includes a main engine 40 and a socket 10 connected to the main engine 40. The socket 10 has an upper surface 11 and a lower surface 12. The upper surface 11 has a coupling portion 16 fastened to the main engine 40.

Referring to FIG. 3, the cleaning cloth holding structure includes a fastening member 20 mounted onto the upper surface 11 of the socket 10. The fastening member 20 has an assembling portion 21, and the upper surface 11 has a corresponding assembling slot 13 to hold the assembling portion 21. The assembling portion 21 has a first positioning portion 22 and the assembling slot 13 has a second positioning portion 14 latched with the first positioning portion 22. The first and second positioning portions 22 and 14 are respectively a latch and an aperture to allow the assembling portion 21 to be latched in the assembling slot 13.

In addition, the socket 10 has a first anchor portion 15 on the upper surface 11 and the fastening member 20 has a second anchor portion 24 extended from the assembling portion 21 and an arm 23 bridging the assembling portion 21 and the second anchor portion 24. As shown in the drawings, the first and second anchor portions 15 and 24 are respectively an aperture and a strut mating and engageable with each other. The second anchor portion 24 includes a plurality of butting portions 25 spaced from each other by a gap 26. Hence the second anchor portion 24 is elastic and can be latched with the first anchor portion 15 to form anchor relationship.

Referring to FIGS. 4A and 4B, when a user is desired to mount a cleaning cloth 30 to be held on the socket 10; first, place the cleaning cloth 30 on the lower surface 12 of the socket 10; inversely fold the edge of the cleaning cloth 30 extended outside the lower surface 12 to the upper surface 11 to cover the first anchor portion 15 (referring to FIG. 4A); bend the second anchor portion 24 together with the cleaning cloth 30 to cover the first anchor portion 15 to form anchor relationship so that the cleaning cloth 30 is clamped between the first and second anchor portions 15 and 24 (referring to FIG. 4B) to form secure fastening.

In addition to the automatic mopping apparatus discussed in the previous embodiment, referring to FIG. 5, the mopping apparatus may also be a mop with a rod 50 fastened to the coupling portion 16 of the socket 10. Then the user can grip the rod 50 to do cleaning manually.

As a conclusion, the present invention mainly provides a cleaning cloth holding structure for a mopping apparatus that includes a socket 10 and a fastening member 20 located on the socket 10. The socket 10 has a lower surface 12 to hold a cleaning cloth 30 and an upper surface 11 to anchor the cleaning cloth 30. The fastening member 20 includes an assembling portion 21 coupled to the upper surface 11 of the socket 10. The socket 10 has a first anchor portion 15 on the upper surface 11, and the fastening member 20 has a corresponding second anchor portion 24 to clamp the cleaning cloth 30 with the first anchor portion 15 to form anchor relationship to securely hold the cleaning cloth 30 on the socket 10. As a result, the cleaning cloth 30 can be held at greater strength without loosening off during cleaning to improve usability.

While the preferred embodiments of the invention have been set forth for the purpose of disclosure, modifications of the disclosed embodiments of the invention as well as other embodiments thereof may occur to those skilled in the art. Accordingly, the appended claims are intended to cover all embodiments which do not depart from the spirit and scope of the invention. 

What is claimed is:
 1. A cleaning cloth holding structure for a mopping apparatus, comprising: a socket including a lower surface to hold a cleaning cloth and an upper surface to anchor the cleaning cloth, the upper surface including a first anchor portion; and a fastening member which includes an assembling portion coupled with the upper surface of the socket and a second anchor portion extended from the assembling portion to clamp the cleaning cloth with the first anchor portion to form a anchor relationship.
 2. The cleaning cloth holding structure of claim 1, wherein the first anchor portion and the second anchor portion are respectively an aperture and a strut mating and engageable with each other.
 3. The cleaning cloth holding structure of claim 1, wherein the second anchor portion includes a plurality of butting portions spaced from each other by a gap.
 4. The cleaning cloth holding structure of claim 1, wherein the upper surface of the socket includes a coupling portion coupled with the mopping apparatus.
 5. The cleaning cloth holding structure of claim 1, wherein the fastening member further includes an arm to bridge the assembling portion and the second anchor portion.
 6. The cleaning cloth holding structure of claim 1, wherein the upper surface of the socket includes an assembling slot to hold the assembling portion.
 7. The cleaning cloth holding structure of claim 6, wherein the assembling portion includes a first positioning portion and the socket includes a second positioning portion coupled with the first positioning portion.
 8. The cleaning cloth holding structure of claim 7, wherein the first positioning portion and the second positioning portion are respectively a latch and an aperture.
 9. The cleaning cloth holding structure of claim 1, wherein the mopping apparatus is an automatic mopping machine.
 10. The cleaning cloth holding structure of claim 1, wherein the mopping apparatus is a mop. 